Super Moderator

Hello! Now we're moving into one of the most important polls of CAP. Through this series of polls, we'll be deciding on the typing of CAP4. I hope you understand the gravity of this poll; movepools, abilities, and even stats will all be altered by what we choose here. Pick wisely.

Typing Polls are run with IRV voting, the details of which are outlined here. This means that you can upvote your favorite typing and downvote your least favorite. Be aware that order does matter in your votes! The first line is your favorite, the last line is your least favorite. Make sure you vote properly. Make sure that you bold your votes and nothing else! A typical vote might look like the following:

Most PreferredSecond Most PreferredThird Most Preferred

Any comments that the voter has would go below the votes in non-bold text. Bold text is used to determine what the user's votes are, so none of the supplementary text should be in bold.

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Please post only your votes in this thread. Do not respond to other posts, or your posts will be moderated and you may be warned. You are allowed to say whatever you like in relation to your vote at the bottom of your post, but please do not look to begin a discussion. Keep those comments to #cap on IRC.

General Description: This Pokémon is very risky to play, but very rewarding if played correctly.

Justification: Many of the Pokémon that are successful in OU are relatively easy to play or have great "safe" options (e.g. U-turn). Yet, many other Pokémon look very powerful, but are less successful than they could be because of some large risks involved (e.g. Hydreigon), and some aren't successful at all (e.g. Honchkrow). This self-balancing concept intends to explore what it takes for a risky Pokémon to be successful, and how much inherent risk a Pokémon can get away with. It should be emphasized that this concept is NOT about luck management, but rather, it is about what the user can afford to do given his/her opponent's options, and vice versa.

Questions To Be Answered:

What is the relationship between risk and potential consequences, both positive and negative?

What kinds of inherently risky tactics are successful in the OU metagame?

Do risky Pokémon need some form of safe options (e.g. switch-ins) to be successful in OU, or can it get away with having few really safe options?

How does Substitute, a well-known "safe" move with nearly universal distribution, impact how this Pokémon is built and played?

How do existing Pokémon use and deal with risky situations?

Can risky Pokémon be played well in the early game, or are they better off put into action later on?

How do different playstyles interact with risky situations?

Explanation: This concept has been a rather long time coming. My main inspiration actually comes from obi / david stone and his battling AI, Technical Machine. Part of me imagined Technical Machine playing in a metagame containing this kind of Pokémon to see how it would play it, and by submitting this now I risk never having that come to fruition, but it doesn't seem like it will be finished for this generation any time soon. My other inspirations mainly comes from examples of risky Pokémon in other metagames. Honchkrow in UU, for example, has a deadly combination in Sucker Punch + Brave Bird + Pursuit, and with enough balls (or a good opportunity), it can use Roost to keep on trucking past Life Orb recoil. Another arguable example is Ursaring in Glitchmons. It is successful for having an extremely powerful priority STAB move, but at the same time, its other priority moves aren't quite as powerful, and sometimes it has to resort to a move like V-create, which punishes its low Speed.

Now, some may have noticed that there was no mention whatsoever of the term "prediction" throughout this submission. This was intentional. I feel that "prediction" has very much become a sort of buzzword even among seasoned battlers, and people get the heavily simplified idea that Pokémon is just about predicting your opponent's move. Yet, as anyone who's played poker or even competitive rock-paper-scissors will tell you, there is an inherent risk in every read, and these risks have to be considered to be successful. The aforementioned Technical Machine has no inherent concept of "prediction" at all. Hopefully, by making a Pokémon that embodies risk and reward, we will have a better understanding of the long-term implications of risk in a Pokémon match.

I know bugmaniacbob said he wants a concept focused on how to build a Pokémon more than what the metagame does when presented with a certain Pokémon. I know that this concept is pretty heavy on the latter, but I definitely chose this concept with the former in mind as well. There are a lot of good possibilities for making risk happen, and I am eager to see what people come up with.

I really like the way that Bug/Psychic interacts with the environment, its team, and other such things. It is risky to switch in without being reliant on weather control or other such things. Bug/Dragon is a close second because, while riskier, it has the potential to make for a more interesting and informative CAP. Grass/Flying… you may be wondering why I slated this, and it's purely because it's a typing I am very interested in and think could possibly have quite a few applications, which I'd like to see more of. As far as Electric/Psychic is concerned, I have no reason to keep it off the slate, so it might as well be there for variety. There is nothing particularly about it that interests me, to be honest, but it still suits our purposes very well indeed.

Now, go forth and vote.

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Not enough room to add Bug/Ground, which would've been also awesome, but I like these options so much that, whichever wins, it'll be good (although... Grass/Flying? Kind of random last minute addition, it seems). Bug/Dragon slightly lower but I'm sure enough people liking it will vote it up anyway.

Super Moderator

It is written directly in the original post and applies to every single voting stage of CAP. It messes with the voting system. Your entire ballot will be deleted if you don't follow this rule; thank you. Please read the rules before voting since they are imperative to how CAP is run.